Friday, July 5
Read Ellen G. White, “The Creation”, pp. 44-51, in Patriarchs and Prophets.
“‘God is love’. … His nature, His law, is love. It ever has been; it ever will be. ‘The high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity,’ whose ‘ways are everlasting,’ changeth not. With Him ‘is no variableness, neither shadow of turning’. …
Every manifestation of creative power is an expression of infinite love. The sovereignty of God involves fullness of blessing to all created beings”. – Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, page 33.
“If men would do their duty as faithful stewards of their Lord’s goods, there would be no cry for bread, none suffering in destitution, none naked and in want. It is the unfaithfulness of men that brings about the state of suffering in which humanity is plunged … God has made men His stewards, and He is not to be charged with the sufferings, the misery, the nakedness, and the want of humanity. The Lord has made ample provision for all”. – Ellen G. White, Welfare Ministry, p. 16.
Discussion Questions:
Look carefully at the last Ellen White statement above. What is she saying? Who is she saying is ultimately responsible for so much of the poverty we see? What should this tell us about the importance of faithful stewardship?
After thousands of years of the brokenness caused by sin, how possible is it for us still to see the goodness of Creation? As people who believe in the Creator God, what can we do to help others see the goodness of His creation?
What do you understand by the word stewardship? Has anything in this week’s lesson expanded your thinking about what it means to be a steward, particularly as we are called by God?
How might it change the way we relate to and treat others if we were to see a sign on every person we met that reminded us that this person is “created by God in His image and loved by Him”?
Summary: God created a good and complete world, and He appointed human beings, created in His image, to “tend and care for” His creation. Though sin broke the relationships that God had originally intended for us, we still have a role to play as stewards of the goodness of creation and caretakers of our fellow human beings. Fulfilling this role is one way we can honor God as our Creator.
